Serialized

Hollywood Wants to Make a Movie out of Serial. But Should They?

Hollywood wants to turn your latest obsession into a movie. But that’s actually a terrible idea.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, film and television producers have approached the powers that be behind Serial, the true-crime podcast phenomenon that’s sweeping the nation, hoping to adapt the story of Adnan Syed and Hae Min Lee. If you haven’t been listening to the This American Life spin-off Serial (what on earth have you been doing instead??), it’s a highly addictive investigation into a 15-year-old case led by the very engaging Sarah Koenig. By digging through archival information, old case files, court transcripts, and tracking down interested parties, Koenig hopes to determine if Syed actually did murder his ex-girlfriend, Lee, or if he’s been wrongfully convicted of the crime.

Because of Koenig’s warm, informal style, and the unsolved nature of the case, the show has been an instant and unprecedented podcast phenomenon. I suspect, in no small part, because it taps into the same instincts True Detective did. Namely, our compulsive need as an audience to beat a mystery story to the finish line. To be the first ones to solve the case.

This kind of rabid fandom comes with its own complications and hang-ups. Namely, while we’ve all be frothing at the mouth to try to unravel the mystery of Syed’s story (who’s Jay, what happened at the Best Buy, why do the cell records not match up?!), we may have lost sight of the fact that this isn’t the same as a story about the Yellow King and Carcosa starring Matthew McConaughey. This is real life. Bringing that all into sharp perspective is a recent post on Reddit by someone claiming to be Hae Min Lee’s younger brother. He wrote:

I am just big fan/user of reddit. When I found out there was subreddit
for this, I had to do AMA for reddit community. But sorry I won't be
answering any questions because... TO ME ITS REAL LIFE. To you
listeners, its another murder mystery, crime drama, another episode of
CSI. You weren't there to see your mom crying every night, having a
heartattck when she got the new that the body was found, and going to
court almost everyday for a year seeing your mom weeping,crying and
fainting. You don't know what we went through. Especially to those who
are demanding our family response and having a meetup... you guys are
disgusting. SHame on you. I pray that you don't have to go through
what we went through and have your story blasted to 5mil listeners.

He does go on to say that Koenig and her producers reached out to him and his family, and the evidence he posted to support that demonstrates extreme sensitivity on the part of the NPR team. Nonetheless, Koenig can’t control the way the story is being consumed by her audience and the Lee family’s reaction is understandably negative.

But that reaction is not the only reason turning Serial into a TV show or film may not be the best idea. True stories have long made for compelling filmed material, but once the show concludes, as it currently plans to do, in December, will the addictive nature of the narrative evaporate? The show will end in one of two ways. It’s possible that Koenig will discover some concrete fact that either proves or condemns Syed once and for all. The likelier conclusion will be that there is no way to know for sure what happened to Lee in 1999. How will listeners handle a lack of resolution? Historically, not well.

Either way, I can’t imagine any filmed or televised version of the Serial story will be a straight retelling of the case against Syed. Rather, I expect, we would get a filmed behind-the-scenes depiction of the making of Serial, one more Inception layer down from the original story. Imagine someone like Sandra Bullock playing the charismatic and self-effacing Koenig, the film cutting between her investigation and moodily lit, late-night recording sessions. Imagine the This American Life team (Hugh Grant as Ira Glass?) reacting with surprise when the podcast becomes an overnight phenomenon. It’s a project that, when done well, could provide an interesting look at the push and pull between truth and sensationalism in storytelling, and how something as enormous as Serial inevitably stops belonging solely to its creators.

But doing it well is the key, and it would be oh-so-easy to get it wrong. It’s true that given Ira Glass’s historical commitment to blending journalistic integrity with engaging storytelling, he’d be the last person to let Serial fall to the wrong creative voice. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Glass and his representatives have refused to take any meetings at all until the show is finished, and there’s no guarantee at all that a project would emerge from those conversations--chalk it up as yet another Serial-related mystery.